Freedom requires that we are protected from forms of coercion. It is difficult to define coercion in today’s decision making. Psychologically the masses may collectively agree because people are coerced to believe in something to be true, meanwhile it may just be an illusion.
We need an active state intervention to our freedom is preserved. “The class which has the means of production at its disposal, has control at the same time over the means of mental production”, said Marx. If you compare this idea to American economic structure you can see similarities. Large corporations employing large mass of people with ties in governmental politics, information distribution, and advertisement. We focus on our freedoms on individual, isolated situations and scenarios such as freedom to vote, speech, freedom to buy consumer good. We think we are free but in the larger scheme of things a lot of our freedoms to make decisions are controlled by an outside force.
1 comment:
YOu make a good point here, which is that the US model is focused on the freedom of the individual FROM government coercion, and does not see the economy as a significant source of coercion, as MArx does.
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